Greening the Greek Community at UC - A Baby Project

I'm blogging an e-mail or facebook message I'm about to send out in an effort to just spread the word a little further about one of my little projects. Since I'm too lazy to re write it for a different audience, I suppose you'll just have to read through it as if you are part of the specific audience I was going for. Don't get me wrong, I want you to read it, the information inside the e-mail is worth sharing with a community beyond the Greek Community, but to change it all up just seems to not fit into my schedule.

Why am I posting it anyone? I supposed I could use some form of critique if you are into critiquing things.

I hope this long assed message will give you a break from your studying, paper writing, or daaping.

I’ve been thinking about how to best execute some type of campaign that makes the Greek Community a little bit greener overall. Today I had an endless storm of ideas (until my lunch break ended) that I’d like to share with you on how we might actually deliver something to UC’s Greek Community and make an impact within that community, and beyond.

Nothing will happen before the end of this quarter, so keep working on your projects and papers and studying for your final crits and exams.  I just want to get this idea out before it gets stale or I lose steam.

My idea is to create a small youtube series of how-to videos. Each video’s format will go something like this:

1)      Digital Graphic of “GO GREEK. GO GREEN.” will play.

2)      Every how-to will open with a greeting from the “host”, wearing a classic Greek Letter shirt. There will be a different host for every how-to.  Each how-to will be filmed in the respective house of the host to show that the practices we are suggesting can be widely implemented. Host will briefly introduce themselves and go on to describe the subject of this how to.

3)      While they continue to narrate the practice (ex, recycling, shopping local, eating less meat) the shot changes to video of them actually participating in those practices.

4)      At the bottom of the screen, facts associated with a practice will be displayed.

-EX. While Mara is shopping at a local vintage clothing store, these facts display at the bottom of the screen while she narrates the practice:  

a.       Shopping locally reduces your gas consumption and pollution. Also, local stores help to sustain vibrant, walkable communities, reducing sprawl and the need for automobiles.  

b.      Buying Vintage means being green, helping the environment by recycling garments

5)      The host then transitions into their “Reading Rainbow” spiel. By saying something along the lines of “But don’t take my word for it” and then encouraging viewers to engage in this activity and then promote this activity with twitter and other forms of social media.

6)      Each video ends with all of the hosts of each of the videos signing off together. Each person in this group is wearing their greek letters and looks happy. This shot would be filmed once and tagged to the end of every video.

So, What are the subjects for these videos?

1)      Consumerism

a.       Shop local and for socially and environmentally sustainable products

b.      Eat fresh, local, organic food

c.       Patronize local bars, theatres, sports events, concerts, etc.

2)      Eating

a.       Eat fresh, local, organic food

b.      Eat less meat

c.       Cook with friends and share the food

d.      Compost food waste

e.      Have cooks shop at Findlay Market rather than Sams or Kroger

3)      Generating Waste

a.       What can and cannot be recycled

b.      How do you recycle (Cincinnati specific)

c.       Reduce consumption

                                                               i.      Refillable water bottles

                                                             ii.      Reusable shopping bags

4)      Clothes

a.       Buy used clothes

b.      Do laundry using cold settings

c.       Air dry your laundry

d.      Donate clothes after use

e.      Know where and how your clothes are manufactured

f.        Turn down your thermostat and wear more clothes in the winter

5)      Transportation

a.       Ride your bike or walk (include “Best Bike Accessories” )

b.      Carpool to minimize trips

c.       Use public transportation

The next step after this video project would be to incentivize these practices by adding an award to the Greek Awards at the end of Greek Week. There would be a rubric that houses could fill out, like they already do for Greek Awards.

FLOF (Fresh, Local, Organic Food) is a student organization on campus that already has its eyes set on the Greek community on how to implement FLOF on an industrial scale. Their end goal is to have all of UC’s food come from fresh, local, organic sources. They want to start within the Greek Community as a tasting ground (wocka wocka wocka) for how to change food systems. FLOF is preparing a presentation and survey that they will circle around the greek community, actually making the presentations before chapter meetings or as part of an house education presentations.

Let me know what you think of any of this! Any other video groupings that you can think of would be welcome as well!